MIAMI GARDENS ― The way Miami Dolphins coaches were explaining it to rookie guard Jonah Savaiinaea, he’s got a hammer in his toolbox, but he doesn’t always have to use it.
And in the second half of this season, that’s made all the difference.
“I think he’s upped his game a lot,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said of his fellow Polynesian.
Savaiinaea really struggled early in the season.
But in the past seven games, he’s allowed only two sacks and committed no penalties.
Why didn’t the Dolphins give up on Savaiinaea, their second-round pick?
“Speed and power,” Miami offensive line coach Butch Barry said, bluntly.
Savaiinaea began this season believing that he had to attack every snap – run or pass – with the same approach to firing off the ball with relentless aggression.
But he says as he’s learned more about how defenses are trying to attack him and the Miami offense, he’s learned he can approach each play slightly differently.
Miami Dolphins’ Jonah Savaiinaea improves
Tagovailoa said he’s seen Savaiinaea studying extra film late in the day.
Barry said Savaiinaea “takes meticulous notes, has a huge book of great notes.”
This may be a bit inside-the-game, but one play Savaiinaea detailed gave cool insight into what goes through the mind of a rookie offensive lineman.
“I think the first pass play against the Saints, Bryan Bresee – prior to that week, we knew that if a nickel shows that he’s lower than a linebacker, he’s going to cross my face,” Jonah explained. “So usually if I don’t see that, I’ll be aggressive because you’ll maintain that B-gap, but I peeked and from my peripheral vision that he’s down, so I laid off of that and he actually slanted inside, so it all worked at the end.”
Savaiinaea has a better sense of what’s coming and it makes all the difference.
“Understand the offense better, understanding his angles, understanding his leverages, understanding the speed and tempo before contact with the different alignments of the different players, right,” Barry, the line coach, said. “Same thing with pass, for understanding what your range is with your hands, how your feet have to be connected, how your feet have to be placed when I am in contact, how to react to the movement after contact, right? All those things, I can talk about until I’m blue in the face, but he has to feel that. And he has to feel that day in and day out.”
The Dolphins have rushed for more than 160 yards in four straight games.
Miami’s offensive line of Patrick Paul-Savaiinaea-Aaron Brewer-Cole Strange-Austin Jackson has been solid in recent weeks. And the rookie, Savaiinaea, has not broken when he was being heavily scrutinized and doubted — at times, rightly so.
“(Jonah) has a high-end grade of mental toughness,” Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith said. “And I think that’s one thing that people take for granted with him.”
Joe Schad is a journalist covering the Miami Dolphins and the NFL at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jschad@pbpost.com and follow him on Instagram and on X @schadjoe. Sign up for Joe’s free weekly Dolphins Pulse Newsletter. Help support our work by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: How Miami Dolphins rookie Jonah Savaiinaea turned around his season
Reporting by Joe Schad, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
